Sony

Smart glasses, while fancy and interesting, have the peculiar problem of usually being ugly, if not hard to personalize. Well, that and they could be used as instruments to invade privacy. Without giving up on the entire smart eyepiece category, Sony is trying to take a different spin on the wearable. Instead of a complete smart glass like Google Glass, Sony is developing a standalone display module instead, one that can be attached to any fashionable eyewear of your choosing and can even be used without a smartphone.

This week the folks at PlayStation UK have decided to bring the heat to their Retro PlayStation 4 release with a system called #20YearsofCharacters. With this system they've set clues in their website that ultimately lead to a sales portal for the 20th Anniversary Sony PlayStation 4. The problem is - too many people want it all at once. The website portal is down for some, and loading with extreme slowness for most. Once in, there's no guarantee you'll find what you're looking for, anyway.

The Press has been issued a demand from Sony Pictures that all leaked information from the recent hack of their systems be deleted. This demand was made with regard to the hack that's rumored to have been executed by North Korea in retaliation for the release of the movie The Interview. This movie depicts a humorous take on an assassination attempt on the leader of North Korea, and North Korea was presumably not especially happy to hear that it was being made.

It's been just a week since Sony and Capcom confirmed and announced Street Fighter V to the masses. And it won't be a few months until those masses actually get their hands on official copies of the latest iteration of the iconic fighting game. But as a fitting finale to the 2014 pro tournament, Capcom Cup held the first ever Street Fighter V match, before the game is actually launched. Of course, the match is limited to the only two characters so far revealed.

There’s something really ironic about Sony, who have been hacked thoroughly, wanting to discuss or offer any form of security. For you, the consumer, the front door to your home serves as your main sense of security, and likely holds your stiffest door lock, and maybe even a few deadbolts. Sony, though, they want to help you protect your home, and are introducing something called the Qrio. You won’t see Qrio on your store shelves any time soon, though. Sony is also crowdfunding their efforts.

It seems Chrstimas came a month early for Microsoft. We saw it last week and now another independent research confirms it. Microsoft's Xbox One has indeed, for the first time, outsold the PlayStation 4 in the US, though only considering the month of November. The recent holiday shopping spree was a big break for Microsoft's console, beleaguered by its rivalry with Sony's counterpart. That victory was not without its price, however, as the repeated price cuts implemented over the past months are believed to have been Microsoft's ace.

The Xbox One might have had the crown this recent holiday season, but Sony's consoles are getting ready to take on a completely fresh and potentially huge market next month. Going behind schedule by a month, Sony has just announced that it will start selling the PlayStation 4 (CUH-1000 series) and the PlayStation Vita (PCH-2000) in China starting January 11 next year. Given than Microsoft isn't far behind, this will mark a new arena in the battle for console supremacy between the two giants.

The hacking of Sony Pictures has yielded some interesting takeaways. We know a large studio is not safe from digital assault, and we’ve seen more than our fair share of details surrounding stars and their pay. Seeing film budgets is interesting, but we still haven’t been down to brass tacks. What’s this all about? Why hack Sony Pictures? Speculation about the incoming movie The Interview suggested a link to North Korea, who have since refuted that assertion. The hackers, though — their recent demands suggest North Korean ties.

Overnight, Sony’s PlayStation store went down. For roughly two hours, the online portal for PlayStation users was unavailable, and a hacker conglomerate is taking responsibility. The Lizard Squad, which cryptically refer to themselves as “lizards” who “want to watch the world burn”, seem to be claiming responsibility for the disruption in service. In a Twitter post right around the same time as the PlayStation store went down, The Lizard Squad said “PSN Login #offline #LizardSquad”. Sony said they were aware of the service disruption, and are looking into it.

Sony just finished its standalone PlayStation Experience media event in Las Vegas this weekend, and it unloaded a ton of teasers on gamers. Not all of them good, unfortunately. But if you weren't keeping tabs on the press conference, you need not fret as there is plenty of time to catch up before the games hit stores next year. As to what those games are, it's a wide collection of sequels to iconic titles like Street Fighter and Yakuza, as well as a bunch of new inventions from indie developers.